Liontrust looks at Occam long-only fund

14 October 2011 8:00 am | By Joanne Ellul

Liontrust is considering launching a long-only equity fund for Occam’s global emerging markets team.

Liontrust last week finalised its acquisition of emerging markets specialist Occam Asset Management for around £2.7m but the final price has not been confirmed. The deal sees £89.3m of assets transfer to Liontrust, bringing its total assets under management to £1.3bn.

Speaking to Money Marketing, Liontrust chief executive John Ions says the firm is looking to develop a long-only version of the £62.6m Occam emerging markets opportunities fund, which has been rebranded the Liontrust emerging markets absolute return fund.
The fund is down by 26.5 per cent in the year to October 6, according to Morningstar.

Ions says: “We are in discussions with the global emerging markets team about looking at a long-only version of the absolute return product they are running at the moment.”

Ions says investors are de-risking their portfolios at the moment but there will be a time when they will want to increase their allocation to global emerging markets.

The Occam global emerging markets team comprises eight people while the Asian team has three. The two teams, plus four sales staff, will move to the Liontrust office by October 17.

Hargreaves Lansdown investment manager Ben Yearsley says: “Valuations in emerging markets are looking reasonable, China is down by around 30 per cent. It would be a good time to launch an emerging markets fund.”

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